SBI cashier, manager among 44 arrested for diversion of gold, cash in Mancherial

Police in Mancherial arrested 44 people, including the cashier and manager of SBI-Chennur branch, for misappropriating 21 kg of pledged gold and Rs 1.10 crore. The fraud surfaced during an audit; police recovered 15.2 kg gold and Rs 1.61 crore.

Mancherial: Forty-four persons including cashier and a manager from the Chennur branch of the State Bank of India were arrested for their alleged role in misappropriation of 21 kilograms of gold ornaments, pledged by customers, and Rs.1.10 crore. Police seized 15.237 kg of gold ornaments and Rs.1.61 crore from the accused persons. Three more accused persons were absconding.

Briefing details of the arrests on Sunday, Ramagundam Commissioner of Police Amber Kishore Jha said the prime accused Narige Ravinder, cashier, Vennapureddy Manohar, manager and Lakkakula Sandeep, attender at SBI-Chennur and 41 others from several parts of the district and Peddapalli were apprehended for swindling the gold ornaments and cash.

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A case was registered against Ravinder and others based on a complaint received from SBI regional manager Rithesh Kumar following the fraud that came to fore during an audit held in the bank on August 23.

Ravinder reportedly confessed to committing the crime in the hope of making quick money, by taking assistance from Manohar and Sandeep. He is said to have admitted to availing 142 loans by pledging gold ornaments at various lending firms in the names of 44 persons in Mancherial after losing Rs.40 lakh in online cricket betting platforms in 2024. Police said he had revealed that he was easily stealing ornaments and cash as he had the key to the bank locker. Ravinder and Manohar granted 42 loans worth Rs.1.58 crore to relatives of Manohar by faking to have pledged gold ornaments measuring 4.14 kg with SBI, police said, adding that the value of the loans was Rs.1.58 crore.

Ravinder further told investigating officials that he was stealing cash while refilling ATMs in Chennur at regular intervals.

Jha commended Mancherial DCP A Bhaskar and Jaipur ACP Venkateshwar, who headed the four teams formed to probe the fraud. Inspectors Devender Rao, Bansilal, Venu Chandar, Ashok, K Naresh, Babu Rao, Sub Inspectors Subbarao, Sridhar, Rajender, Swetha, Santosh, Laxmi Prasanna, Koteshwar, Upender, Chandrashekhar and Ravi were also part of the investigations.